


Some Semblance of Expectations

by leviathanchronicles



Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club
Genre: ???? - Freeform, Fluff, I'll add more tags as needed, Illness, M/M, Soulmates, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-27
Packaged: 2018-09-26 00:33:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9854063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leviathanchronicles/pseuds/leviathanchronicles
Summary: Discomfort: Noun. Refers to a lack of physical comfort, slight pain, or a state of mental distress. Often associated with being separated from one's soulmate.





	1. Nausea

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone! This fic is for a prompt on Tumblr, which is as follows: alternate universe where, once you've met your soulmate, it is physically uncomfortable to be away from them for long.  
> I am considering making this into a multi chapter fic that really explores this duo (and actually includes some romance), but that all depends on my time! In any case, let me know if you'd be interested.

If anyone had to guess, they would assume Continue? was its own soulmate. Continue? would assume the same for itself, if pressed.

After all, Nick, Josh, and Paul hadn’t been apart for more than a few days since they had met. Even on breaks, they hung out more than they didn’t – if being away from each other made them uncomfortable, they had no way of knowing. 

The same could be said about many students of Asagao Academy. After all, they ate in the same lunch room, attended the same classes, joined the same clubs; it was nearly impossible to figure out if one had even met their soulmate, much less who the soulmate was.

It didn’t help that the levels of discomfort were different for everyone. Paul had witnessed one girl get a severe migraine after a student had gone home to deal with family issues; on the other hand, PBG noted a buzzing in his hands that had existed since childhood, but nothing else. 

For Paul, it was a feeling of constant nausea. Of course, he never identified that as evidence that he’d met his soulmate. It wasn’t the kind of thing that prompted him to go to a doctor. At most, he would turn down particularly greasy foods. The symptom never lasted long, anyways, and he was kept pretty distracted.

The return back to school after summer holiday was always a welcome one. Paul really did enjoy interacting with his fellow students, and the return to a routine and somewhat healthy meals always helped to eliminate his nausea. 

The first Normal Boots meeting upon their return was nothing more than messing around and discussing what had occurred in the past six weeks. It was all very routine -- a way of chilling out before discussing what was upcoming with the club. 

Jared had already plastered the walls with his own pictures, and Paul had already made plans to pulls them down in order to keep up the sanctity of the room. He never did it immediately; Jared always got extremely sick over breaks, and Paul didn’t want to risk causing some kind of relapse by damaging his ego.

Speaking of Jared -- he was pale, and every smile he offered was weak; even though his ever present sparkles were still lighting up the area around him, it was abundantly evident that he had not managed to get through the break without his traditional illness. 

The idea of it being his soulmate had been brought up their first year, and honestly, that’s what everyone attributed it to. There was no point in Jared trying to figure out who it was -- anyone in the school would be more than willing to claim it was them, so speculation was useless.

Satch slid a water bottle over to Jared, who nodded with closed eyes before drinking. Yes, he felt better, but he still had to recuperate from weeks of hardly eating or drinking. Not for the first time, Paul thought about the benefits of a program that helped eliminate the soulmate search entirely. The infirmary would be a lot less busy, that was certain, and students wouldn’t have to miss school...

So entranced in his thoughts, Paul didn’t realize he was the center of attention until Nick shoved him (rather harshly, might he add). Naturally, he shoved back, but Nick’s rebuttal was halted by Josh clearing his throat.

“As we were saying,” cue the irritated look in Paul’s direction, “Paul always gets sick over break.” 

Paul recognized the implication for what it was instantly and rolled his eyes, perfect defense already prepared. “Because all you guys want to eat is pizza and fast food. We need variety if we want to have some semblance of health.” 

This led to a series of gags, with Jon clutching on to his throat for good measure -- exactly what Paul had been expecting. The conversation promptly switched to a debate over who, exactly, was the most unhealthy of the group. 

Paul kept up with the discussion easily enough until he noted the feeling of being stared at. He glanced around the tables as subtly as possible, but no amount of secrecy would’ve prevented him from making eye contact with Jared. That latter narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, and the former realized why a full ten seconds later.  
Oh.

Always a leader, he was the first to stand when the meeting was dismissed, and he offered a hand to Jared immediately after. Always helpful, that was him; always considerate. Besides, they had things to figure out.


	2. Perturbation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wherein Paul and Jared have a chat that only serves to make things more difficult.

Despite Satch and Jirard’s best efforts, Jared was far from stellar feeling. Having food actually settle in his stomach was a welcome sensation, but he was still shaky and dehydrated. Going to doctor had been useless, as always -- being away from your soulmate can’t kill you, so the only advice offered was to try and force down a meal.

Now that school was back in session, he was doing his best not to even think about the illness that had destroyed his break. Within the week, he would be back to normal; it was an annoying part of life, but it was one he and everyone around him had come to expect.

He would’ve dropped the topic entirely if Josh hadn’t mentioned Paul’s nausea. This had forced Jared to pay attention to the entire concept of soulmate discomfort. Of course he had considered the possibility of it being a member of Normal Boots -- he’d figured out that he wasn’t straight around the same time he figured out he was trans, and it had never caused him any significant distress. That said -- well, the only other person to mention any trouble over breaks was PBG, and everyone knew he’d found (and presumably lost) his soulmate before Jared had even met him. 

Of all the people for it to potentially be, it would be Paul -- the two were by no means enemies, but that was a closer estimation than one of romantic lovers. The side of Jared’s mouth quirked as he considered it: being around Paul certainly doesn’t make him any more comfortable than being away from him. 

That’s it, then; if Jared doesn’t feel good around Paul, then Paul isn’t his soulmate. (He knows there’s no real evidence that being around one’s soulmate makes one feel anything other than  _ okay _ , but pretending this to be true makes everything easier). A soulmate would support him through all of his endeavours, and Paul certainly didn’t do that.

Despite his best efforts to convince himself, though, Jared couldn’t help but keep returning to that thought. Someone with a more psychological ideology would no doubt have any number of explanations for this irksome issue, but as for Jared -- he blamed it on the residual effects of dehydration. He used this same excuse to explain away why he couldn’t quite contribute to the conversation surrounding him, and again to explain why his eyes kept returning to Paul, as if he’d find proof that this was a coincidence by staring at him.

It’s on his fifth or sixth glance that he made eye contact with Paul, and he could feel his ears burning as soon as he did. Regardless, he forced himself to hold the other’s gaze, his hand tightening around his water bottle as he tried to seem more determined than he was. As soon as Paul looked away, Jared immediately focused on said water bottle -- it was empty, so he probably looked ridiculous to anyone paying attention, but with any luck, they’d assume he was just looking at his reflection. Speaking of which …

He didn’t notice the meeting had ended until a shadow fell over his bottle. He looked up to see everyone trailing over the room, and Paul, standing above him as if he was about to pitch a new campaign.

“Jared. We should talk.”

* * *

For two guys capable of discussing practically anything to death, the elephant in the room was skillfully avoided. Only moments before, Jared had been forcing himself not to think about it, but now that Paul had interrupted him only to dance around the topic, he couldn’t be more annoyed. Mentally, he listed off any number of retorts to use when the time came. He would be prepared, at least.

They approached their dorm only for Paul to turn towards the field at the last second; of course, he wanted this to be in a place where the entire school wouldn’t be able to hear about it as it was happening. Jared cleared his throat and tugged at his jacket sleeve, embarrassed about his overreaction despite Paul not even being aware of it. Paul continued, not even glancing at Jared until they were standing what he deemed a suitable distance away from the school. 

He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Jared cut in. “I’m sick, Paul, and this isn’t helping me get better.” 

To his (carefully hidden) delight, Paul faltered; it was surprisingly easy to trip up the school’s trusted president, but Jared would still consider it a success. Paul, to his credit, recovered quickly. He nodded, tapping his fingertips together -- again, Jared felt as though he was about to be preached to by a political candidate. 

“I’ll get you back as soon as possible. I just wanted to sort some things out. So, about the whole nausea thing -- I really do think it’s because of how much junk I eat. Obviously, yours is something soulmate related --”

At this, Jared glanced over his shoulder at the school behind them. The soulmate thing was one of his best kept secrets. He would love to have even more eyes on him, yes, but he dealt with enough weirdos when casual dating was mentioned, never mind something as binding as who he was meant to spend his life with. 

“-- and you always end up really sick, don’t you? Whereas I get mild nausea at worst. So they aren’t related; that’s a relief. Sorry to bring you all the way out here. Things like this need to stay quiet; no one needs to know that for a moment, I’d actually been worried you were my soulmate.”

At this point, it was evident Paul was speaking more to himself than to Jared, but that didn’t stop Jared from whipping back around to face Paul, shock clear on his face. Again, Paul faltered, but there was no smugness in Jared’s mind. 

“Worried? Implying I wouldn’t be an incredible soulmate?” He was offended, not because he believed Paul was right, but because he knew he wasn’t. Any worthy person would be aware of Jared’s many strong points, yet here was Paul, acting as though even the thought of spending his life with Jared was terrible.

Paul blinked, looking off to the side -- whatever he’d thought Jared would say, it was evidently not that. Jared didn’t back down; he stared at Paul with a new dedication. After only a few moments of this glare, he could feel one of his eyes twitching. It was almost a relief when Paul did speak.

“That isn’t what I meant. Anyone would be lucky to have you. Anyone but me. You aren’t what I’d call my type.”

Emphasis on the  _ almost _ . Paul’s explanation only served to incite Jared even more; he scoffed, eyes wide with indignation. “You aren’t what I’d call a catch. If I were you, I-you would consider my-yourself lucky to have me-me.”

Paul didn’t allow himself to dwell on the confusion invoked by that comment any longer than it took him to realize it was an insult. He stood with furrowed brows and a open mouth until he arrived at a response. 

“I don’t have to consider myself lucky -- and I wouldn’t -- because we aren’t soulmates. You’re getting offended because someone you are never going to date wouldn’t date you.”

“Yes, I am!” His incredulous response came quickly; why wouldn’t he be offended? No one in this school could live up to him, and this fact being ignored is certainly grounds for irritation. “You wouldn’t date me?”

“No, I wouldn’t, like I just said.” Paul adapted to the new tone of the conversation. The escalation into sharp yelling was a key portion of their arguments; out in the middle of the field, they had no one to help settle the score, so they kept at this part. “Why does this matter?”

“It matters because you’re over here saying you wouldn’t date me --”

“Because I wouldn’t!”

“Everyone wants me!”

“You _know_ that isn’t true, Jared!”

“Everyone with any sense, then --”

“What do you know about sense?”

This went on until both sides were out of breath. The two stood in silence somehow less awkward than the one they had arrived in, the only noise coming from the nature surrounding them.

Jared is the first to gain control of himself. He rolled his eyes, turning on his heel and beginning the trek back to the dorms. Ten seconds later, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him -- because where else was Paul supposed to go? Deeper into the fields? As preferable as such a decision would be, Jared knew it was an unrealistic desire. Once he reached Jared’s side, Paul slowed down, and the two walked with lingering discomfort. They don’t break this stiff silence until they’ve reached their proper room floor.

“Jared? Get some rest. You’re looking sick.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I liked this too much to leave it. So, here we are! This chapter is quite a bit longer than the last, which is something I'd like to keep up with my future chapters. And yeah, Jared is definitely trans, js. Anyways, I'll update once I get the time!


End file.
